Phone based meetings just aren’t the same as physical meetings.  You lose that connection you make by looking the other person in the eye.  You lose the ability to read the other persons body language and facial expressions, and you lack the visual ability to visually demonstrate or explain something.

Face to face meetings were not always practical depending on your budget, the nature of the meeting and obviously the distance involved, but now with current Internet connection speeds and video technologies, a virtual face to face is not only possible but it’s also practical.

If you have half a million dollars to drop on you video conferencing you can consider Cisco’s TelePrescense… but if you don’t, don’t dismay, there are a number of tools that can help you meet, communicate and collaborate in a virtual face to face video chat…

Ease of Entry: Google Video Chat

If you are thinking about implementing video calls/conferencing the easiest way to get going is Google’s new video chat, which launched last week as part of Gmail.  If you are already using Gmail or Google Apps in your business, Google Video Chat is a no-brainer.  There is no need for a separate program, with a simple plug-in, it is seamlessly integrated into your Gmail so all you have to do is click on the video chat button at the bottom of an email or text chat window to take your conversation “face to face.”   Another bonus… it’s free!

A Familiar Face: Skype Video

Skype Video has been around for a while but some have complained about the poor video quality.  Recently with the release of Skype 4, they have added Skype High Quality Video which allows you to go full screen with good picture quality.  If you are already using Skype for VOIP calls and chat, utilizing Skype Video is a good option.  Another bonus to Skype is that you don’t necessarily need a computer to use.  With some external hardware, you’ll be up and running making video calls without taking up your computers resources or valuable screen real estate.

Get the Whole Team On Board: TokBox

Need more than a face to face?  Need a face to face to face to face to… how about 25 faces?  Tokbox is a free browser base video chat service that provides excellent quality and extensibility.  The biggest bonus is the ability to add numerous people.  I’ve never been on a 25 person video conference, but I can imagine it’s a little confusing and chaotic, and I can’t imagine having to do one, but the option is nice to have.  Tokbox is very powerful and easy to use, the only disadvantages I see… it doesn’t go full screen and you can’t click to call, you have to set up a specific chat.

Extensibility: SightSpeed

SightSpeed is a free service that offers features similar to skype… free computer to computer calls with the option to call landlines at a per minute rate, instant messaging and of course video chat.  What SightSpeed has over Skype is it’s extensibility… but unlike TokBox the extra features are going to cost you.  The consumer Plus version allows you to conference with up to 4 people for about $10 a month.  If you want to get more than that you’ll have to get the business plan that can get pretty pricey, but offers a whole host of communications options.

Don’t Just Chat, Collaborate with Vsee

Probably my favorite, Vsee takes the video conference a step further by adding collaboration tools.  Vsee is a stand alone program that unfortunately for you Mac users only works on windows at the moment.  It allows you to conference with up to 4 people at once for free, or up to 8 people with the paid premium version.  The simple collaboration tools are what make this a killer solution.  If you want to share a file simply drag and drop it into the video window.  You can share your screen with others and even applications.  For example if the person you are conferencing with does not have, Photoshop installed on their computer, they can see your screen and even control it and make changes to the document you are working on if you allow it.

It used to be that YouTube and Fantasy Football were the biggest productivity killers in the office, but these days, thoughts about looming foreclosures, plummeting 401Ks, and losing their jobs will steal your employees time and attention much more aggressively than a video of a baby panda sneezing.

The fact is that the state of the economy is effecting us all on many levels from personal finances to the sales pipeline, and whether or not your employees jobs or financial security are in fact at risk, it’s on their minds and you can’t arrest these distractions with a firewall like you can a sniffley panda.

When your teams basic needs are at risk, or perceived to be at risk, they are not going to be focused on quarterly targets or a new product launch, and can you blame them? As effective as quarterly bonuses and team building retreats may be sometimes, they cannot assuage an employee’s fears that they may not be able to meet their basic needs. Here are three steps you can do to bolster morale and help you team and your business weather the storm…

1. Talk Honesty to Your People

One of the biggest fears is the fear of the unknown, and believe me, most times people imaginations are far scarier than reality. As managers, we can’t guarantee our people financial security, and in sometimes we can’t even guarantee they’ll have a job in 6 months, but we can be honest with them about what is going on, how the current client is affecting our industry, our customers and our company and we can share with them what we are doing. At the highest level, come up with an internal communications strategy to keep you people in the loop and part of the conversation.

2. Don’t Just Talk, LISTEN

The first step to addressing the needs of your team is knowing and understanding what those needs are. Be a barometer at your business. Gauge the office climate and determine what the major feelings and concerns are. As a manager, be accessible and listen to individual members of your team. Let your team know that your company understands that times are tough and you are there to help.

3. Respond to Their Needs

Now that your team understands what’s happening and you understand what is on their minds, it’s time to act. As far as the company’s financial needs, well, we are always working on that, but during times of economic uncertainty it would behoove us as a company to address the financial needs of our employees.

Consider Flex time or Flex place Options

Moving your investments, managing your 401K, getting a mortgage loan modification all takes time and unfortunately it usually takes time during business hours. If you have employees that need to deal with financial issues during business hours, giving them some flexibility in their schedule can really empower them to compartmentalize rather than trying to type reports while they sit on hold with their mortgage companies customer service line.

Flex place (or telecommuting) can also take a big burden off your employees. My commute is almost 2 hours round trip and with my gas guzzler it costs me roughly $15-20 in gas a day, not to mention 2 hours of my time and miles on my car, and $3.50 in tolls. When I don’t bring my own lunch, I usually end of dropping $10-15 a day for food. Now if I had kids throw in some child care, which on a non-school day can run $80-100. Basically it can cost anywhere from $30 – $150 a day to come to work. Allowing your employees to telecommute can offer them significant savings, not to mention, most people love working from home.

Help them get their finances straight…

Many of your employees probably already have a financial adviser or some professional helping them manage their investments. The one’s that don’t are going to be the most distracted by fluctuations in the market and the panic in the press. Try retaining the services of a good financial adviser for your employees. Having someone more qualified looking out for their financial well being will not only take a little of the edge off, but will likely yield better results than watching Mad Money.

Help them cut costs…

You can also help your employees cut costs taking advantage of the size of your organization. In many cases, depending on the size of your company, you can negotiate discounted rates for your employees from things like Costco or Gym memberships to Auto inspections and oil changes.

If many of the people in your company live a relatively close geographical area you can help them save on home heating by organizing an oil delivery coop. Home heating oil companies will often give a discount if 10 or more people in a town schedule to have all their oil delivered on the same day so they save money on fuel making the deliveries. Another way you can pool people together to save is by organizing carpooling.

Sure, your employees personal finances and expenses are their own responsibility, but if you provide them with resources to help them through this tough time, combined with open and honest communications they will have less to distract them at their desks and it will set you apart from other potential ports in the storm.

I got an email from my girlfriend today with the subject line: “What time are you getting home EOM”

I was a little curious about whether this EOM was a typo or a new nickname she’s given me, and when I clicked into the message there was nothing in the body.

I emailed her back and asked “What’s with the EOM” and she responded “It means End of Message.  It’s a way to save time by letting you know there’s no body to the msg, just that quick question,” and sent this link.  I responded, “Well it didn’t work that well did it because we’ve emailed each other 4 times now and you still don’t know what time I’m getting home ; )”

I didn’t get  a response to that, so clearly she was not amused, but despite my response,  I think this is a great idea… providing people know what it means.  I am actually going to try and get everyone here at VizQuest on board with this convention.  I think it’s great for a few reasons:

1. It saves time for quick messages not to have to click into the message, particularly when I’m checking my email on my Treo.
2. It forces people to be concise.  The only thing that annoys me more than an a rambling email is when people leave a voice mail message saying “call me back.”  If that’s all you had to say you could have sent a page or a text and saved me the time of dialing into my voice mail… but that’s a topic for another post.
3. It guarantee’s people will read it.  When I’m short on time I’ll just scan through the subject lines looking for something important, but with an EOM message, important or not, I get the whole message and I breeze through.

EOM

I get hundreds of emails every day, yet I am able to effectively and efficiently deal with them in 30-60 minutes a day. This wasn’t always the case. My inbox used to be an unmanageable mess that wasted hours of my time and consequently cost the company money. I was able to regain control of the inbox monster with some principles I learned from Getting Things Done. Here are a 3 things you can do to take control of your inbox…

1.  Limit your inbox visits. For some of us, the compulsion to open our inbox just to check it is as strong as a nicotine crave, and can prove to be cancerous to our productivity. Frequent inbox visits break your work flow and the frequent transitions unnecessarily lengthen the time it takes to get anything done. Instead of succumbing to the email urges, discipline yourself to open your inbox 3 times a day. For example, try once in the morning, once mid-day and once at the end of the day.

2.  Don’t check your email, process your email. Each time you open your inbox process each message. For every message you have several options…

3.  Save some time by filtering emails the end up in the same place every time. I get a number of notifications and reports emailed to me that I need to save for records but don’t need to read. For example, payment receipts for online purchases, Paypal and banking transaction notifications. For these I have set up rules in outlook (or you can use filters in most webmail services) that automatically send these messages to my archive folders.

I think you’ll find that if you follow these three practices you’ll find yourself reclaiming some sanity, and have more time to spend developing your business and improving your bottom line.

Ever have a short “Break Out Meeting” that descends into a long drawn out mind numbingly senseless production? At my old company, these types of meetings were so common I started scheduling for the run over. Usually we weren’t getting off topic but a few members of the team were able to draw out the meeting by asking inane questions and answering with overly redundant buzz words.

When I was appointed team leader on a new project, I tried something I had heard about years ago… I dragged all of the chairs out of the conference room and held the meeting standing up. It was surprisingly effective. People don’t want to stand for an hour, so everyone got straight to the point, cutting the meeting down to about 15 minutes while still hitting all the important points. After that we kept the chairs in the conference room, but pushed them back and stood for all of our short meetings.

Obviously you are not going to try this for a strategic planning meeting or a meeting with clients, but it is a great way to keep your short meetings short.